Kimberly Tilley rescues forgotten stories of early twentieth century America from obscurity. Her books, Grievous Deeds (2023); Has it Come to This? (2022), Cold Heart (2020), and The Poisoned Glass (2019) were Amazon category best-sellers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India.
Kimberly owns OldSpirituals.com. She's very grateful for the wonderful community and two outstanding contributors to help fulfill the site's mission of rescuing fascinating stories from obscurity.
Kimberly is the cofounder of Pivot Talent Development LLC, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. PIVOT offers workshops, training, consulting, and coaching to help professionals improve performance, drive business impact, and transcend limitations.
Kimberly owns OldSpirituals.com. She's very grateful for the wonderful community and two outstanding contributors to help fulfill the site's mission of rescuing fascinating stories from obscurity.
Kimberly is the cofounder of Pivot Talent Development LLC, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. PIVOT offers workshops, training, consulting, and coaching to help professionals improve performance, drive business impact, and transcend limitations.
Latest posts by Kimberly (see all)
- Rhythm, Art, and Labradorite - 8 November 2026
- Personal and Goodwill Evolutions - 27 October 2026
- Supernatural in Blue - 25 October 2026
Today’s post is a photograph by famed photographer Edward S. Curtis, or a head-and-shoulders portrait of a Navajo man, wearing a necklace and a headband.
It’s inexplicably titled “The laughing singer.”
He looks pretty serious to me… I’ve been wondering why it would be called that. Any ideas?
The laughing singer, Published January 6, 1905
He does look pretty serious. Maybe he’s usually a laughing singer, but declined to smile for the picture? Still, it seems sort of odd that he’d still title it “The Laughing Singer” when he’s obviously not laughing
Right? That’s what I thought too!